June 10 -- Lodgepole

Yes, it was indeed quite chilly when we woke up this morning. I had a hard time getting to sleep last night (again, the fear of bears -- this time because we cooked skirt steak, and we were afraid the smell might be lingering inside the van), but once I did, I slept generally well and, more importantly, actually stayed warm. We considered cooking a hot breakfast this morning, but then decided to save our hot breakfasts for Lodgepole, since we are even slightly higher in elevation here. So we opted for yogurt parfaits again, but did splurge and boiled some water for coffee, which helped much.

After breakfast, we headed over to the General Grant Tree Loop, which is a short, leisurely jaunt through a beautiful sequoia grove, by which you pass General Grant Tree, the third largest tree in the world by volume (40-some feet wide at its base) and 1500 years younger than the oldest sequoia. We took photos, of course, but its difficult to even consider how large these trees are in person, let alone get an entire sequoia in a camera's frame. We decided that the tree was nearly as wide as our house. Crazy. But oh so wondrous to look upon. I so wanted a picture of myself attempting to hug one of these trees, but they had them fenced off. Apparently even though they have a very extensive root structure, the root system sits only within the first three feet underground; thus, they could easily be damaged by too much foot traffic.







After our little walk, we packed up the car with all of the items from the bear boxes and took off down the road to Lodgepole, where we will be the next three nights. Like I mentioned before, we had reservations here, so this time we did not get to pick out our site in person. It ends up we don't have the most ideal site (we are by the road), but it really is not terrible. We have a level parking pad and it is not too muddy as some of the others are due to melting snow. We are only 100 feet higher in elevation than we were at the last campground, but there are definitely more piles of snow lying around, and after talking with a ranger this afternoon, it is confirmed that our bigger hikes up in the High Sierras are out. The snow is still six feet deep in some of those areas. No worries, though, as we have three hikes lined up to do in the next two days, all of which sound great.

This campground is probably my least favorite so far just because there are more campers here and we have been so lucky with privacy thus far. And they do not have sinks at the bath houses to wash dishes, which made our harried evening even more harried. Elsa was very fussy this evening, which was grating on a both my and Jarrett's nerves, and dinner was taking WAY longer than anticipated. I thought I was doing us a favor when planning one of our favorite one-pot recipes, hearty Tuscan bean stew, as one of our dinners because I knew it would make enough leftovers to turn into three meals. Well, it tasted good, and will make for quick meals the next two nights, but it was quite the chore this evening. To make up for it, Jarrett discovered washing dishes in the dishpan we bought on one of our California shopping expeditions to actually be easier anyway.

We saw four deer right beside our campsite again tonight. I am hoping that is good luck again, as bears are very active in this area right now (and ,you know, Tuscan bean stew scent is probably lingering in Betty's belly). Elsa so wanted to pet the deer. She was walking as fast as she could toward them, saying, "Pet deer -- Elsa pet deer." These deer were not scampering away very quickly either. They seemed pretty bold in their attempt to scavenge our neighbors' campsite. No petting was to be had, though. What kind of mean mama must I be to not let my not-yet-two-year-old run after deer into the forest? I think her Curious George Goes Camping book has her thinking that hanging with the forest animals is completely okay. Hey, at least she does not yet have my crazy fears.